Holy Father Pope Francis will canonize seven people on Oct. 14 (Sunday) during the Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment. The list includes one pope, a lay man, two women who founded religious orders and three priests. A common theme among them is a deep care for the poor and a strong faith in Jesus despite difficult times.
Holy Father Pope Francis on Sunday will declare Blesseds Oscar Romero, Pope Paul VI and five others as saints at the Vatican during the meeting of the world Synod of Bishops, an institution Blessed Paul revived. The others being Francesco Spinelli, Vincenzo Romano, Maria Caterina Kasper, Nazaria Ignazia and an Italian youth named Nunzio Sulprizio.
Born Giovanni Montini in 1897 in the town of Concesio, Italy, the Pope Paul VI was ordained a priest at the age of 22. He served as Archbishop of Milan prior to his election as Bishop of Rome in 1963. As pope, he oversaw much of the Second Vatican Council, which had been opened by Pope St. John XXIII, and in 1969 promulgated a new Roman Missal. He died in 1978, and was beatified by Pope Francis Oct. 19, 2014.
Apart from his role in the council, Paul VI is most widely know for his landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae, which was published in 1968 and reaffirmed the Church’s teaching against contraception in wake of the sexual revolution. This year marks the 50th anniversary the historic encyclical.
Two miracles attributed to Paul VI’s intercession involve the healing of an unborn child.
Blessed Oscar Romero, who was beatified by Pope Francis May 23, 2015, in El Salvador, was the archbishop of the nation’s capital city of San Salvador. He was shot while celebrating Mass March 24, 1980, during the birth of a civil war between leftist guerrilla forces and the dictatorial government of the right.
An outspoken critic of the violence and injustices being committed at the time, Romero was declared a martyr who was killed in hatred of the faith for his vocal defense of human rights.
In Sunday’s Homily by Fr. Francis Gonsalves, SJ, please listen to his experience at El Salvador of Blessed Oscar Romero.
Image Curtesy: Denver Catholic